The liberal Main Street Alliance is asking Louisville insurer/health care provider Humana to come clean on political donations related to Obama health care reform.
In an open letter to outgoing Humana CEO Michael McCallister, Seattle-based Main Street Alliance leadership asks Humana officials to disclose any money Humana has paid in dues and other contributions to trade associations such as America’s Health Insurance Plans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e10fPJYrFMg
Both AHIP and the Chamber are financing forces trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, passed last year. Anti-health care reform forces say the act is unconstitutional because it forces most Americans to join some sort of health insurance plan.
As do most large corporations, Human’s political contributions run 70 percent Republicans, 30 percent Democrats. And, yes, Republicans are far more likely to vote to roll back health care reform.
But top Humana executives such as McCallister and CFO James Bloehm have never publicly supported pledges by John Boehner and all the GOP presidential candidates including Mitt Romney – Godfather of healthcare reform – to roll back the legislation.
McCallister has called the reform “a mixed bag” that clearly pushes consumers toward his company by requiring all Americans to have health care insurance by 2014. But he’s also referred to it as “insurance market reform,” not health care reform, with the Obama Administration not addressing the undelying problems of rising medical costs and unhealthy Americans.
To complicate matters, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the Health Care bill.
Here’s the Main Street Alliance letter in full:
The Main Street Alliance – 3518 S. Edmunds St. – Seattle, WA 98118 – (603) 831-1835
www.mainstreetalliance.org – info@mainstreetalliance.org
November 10, 2011
Michael B. McCallister
CEO, Humana, Inc.
500 West Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202
Dear Mr. McCallister:
On behalf of the Main Street Alliance, a national network of small businesses and small business
groups, we are writing to ask you to publicly disclose important information about Humana’s political
and third party spending.
In particular, we encourage you to disclose any money Humana has paid in dues and other
contributions to trade associations (such as America’s Health Insurance Plans and the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce) or other third parties in 2010 and 2011. We urge you to share this information publicly
because third party political spending without full disclosure undermines basic principles of
transparency and damages public confidence in our political system.
We believe small business owners deserve to know how our health insurance premium dollars are
being spent. We deserve to know whether our money is being used to fund political spending, either
directly or through third parties, to influence decisions at the state and national levels that impact
our ability to get good health insurance at a price we can afford.
At the national level, we are seeing efforts to turn back the clock on new rules of the road in health
insurance advanced on the pretext of helping small businesses. In reality, these rollbacks would shift
risk and shift costs from big corporate interests onto the shoulders of small businesses like ours.
Small businesses and the general public should have access to complete information about the
funding behind these efforts.
We do have some information about political spending by health insurance interests nationally,
based on our analysis of data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics. We know, for example,
that the insurance industry (including health insurers) and the health services and HMO industry
nationally spent nearly $57 million on federal campaign giving in the 2010 election cycle, and have
spent over $16 million already in the 2012 cycle. We also know these same interests have spent more
than $600 million on lobbying since 2009 ($240 million in 2009, $232 million in 2010, and $169
million so far in 2011).
Furthermore, it was reported late last year that America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the leading
national trade association for the health insurance industry, contributed $86 million to the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce in 2009.
2
Yet, as corporate political spending continues to rise rapidly since the Supreme Court’s Citizens
United decision in January 2010, there remains much we do not know about dues and contributions
paid by major health insurers, including Humana, to trade groups and other third parties. We believe
small businesses and other health insurance customers across the country deserve full disclosure of
this information.
We are aware that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups with fiscal years ending June 30
will be filing their latest federal 990 forms, including dollar amounts received from major donors
(though without the names of the donors), with the IRS on November 15. We urge you to take the
opportunity to fully disclose all of Humana’s dues and contributions to trade associations and other
third parties in advance of this filing deadline.
We look forward to your response by November 15. Please submit any information in electronic form
to the Main Street Alliance at info@mainstreetalliance.org.
Sincerely,
Kelly Conklin, Foley-Waite Associates, Inc, Bloomfield, NJ
ReShonda Young, Alpha Express, Inc, Waterloo, IA
Mary Noel Black, The UPS Store at Citiplace, Baton Rouge, LA
Hollis Berendt, Green Irene, Greeley, CO
Natalie Dinsdale, Ta-Dah! Salon, Ames, IA
Melanie Collins, Melanie’s Home Childcare, Falmouth, ME
Jim Houser, Hawthorne Auto Clinic, Inc, Portland, OR
Maude Varela, Kidutopia, New Orleans, LA
Tim Christiansen, Vino per tutti, Bozeman, MT
Mike Draper, Raygun, Des Moines, IA
Freddy Castiblanco, Terraza 7 Live Music, Queens, NY
Rick Poore, DesignWear, Inc., Lincoln, NE
John Costin, Veneer Services Unlimited, Kennebunk, ME
Chris Petersen, Family farmer, Clear Lake, IA
Main Street Alliance challenging Humana on contributions to anti-reform forces
In an open letter to outgoing Humana CEO Michael McCallister, Seattle-based Main Street Alliance leadership asks Humana officials to disclose any money Humana has paid in dues and other contributions to trade associations such as America’s Health Insurance Plans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e10fPJYrFMg
Both AHIP and the Chamber are financing forces trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, passed last year. Anti-health care reform forces say the act is unconstitutional because it forces most Americans to join some sort of health insurance plan.
As do most large corporations, Human’s political contributions run 70 percent Republicans, 30 percent Democrats. And, yes, Republicans are far more likely to vote to roll back health care reform.
But top Humana executives such as McCallister and CFO James Bloehm have never publicly supported pledges by John Boehner and all the GOP presidential candidates including Mitt Romney – Godfather of healthcare reform – to roll back the legislation.
McCallister has called the reform “a mixed bag” that clearly pushes consumers toward his company by requiring all Americans to have health care insurance by 2014. But he’s also referred to it as “insurance market reform,” not health care reform, with the Obama Administration not addressing the undelying problems of rising medical costs and unhealthy Americans.
To complicate matters, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the Health Care bill.
Here’s the Main Street Alliance letter in full:
The Main Street Alliance – 3518 S. Edmunds St. – Seattle, WA 98118 – (603) 831-1835
www.mainstreetalliance.org – info@mainstreetalliance.org
November 10, 2011
Michael B. McCallister
CEO, Humana, Inc.
500 West Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202
Dear Mr. McCallister:
On behalf of the Main Street Alliance, a national network of small businesses and small business
groups, we are writing to ask you to publicly disclose important information about Humana’s political
and third party spending.
In particular, we encourage you to disclose any money Humana has paid in dues and other
contributions to trade associations (such as America’s Health Insurance Plans and the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce) or other third parties in 2010 and 2011. We urge you to share this information publicly
because third party political spending without full disclosure undermines basic principles of
transparency and damages public confidence in our political system.
We believe small business owners deserve to know how our health insurance premium dollars are
being spent. We deserve to know whether our money is being used to fund political spending, either
directly or through third parties, to influence decisions at the state and national levels that impact
our ability to get good health insurance at a price we can afford.
At the national level, we are seeing efforts to turn back the clock on new rules of the road in health
insurance advanced on the pretext of helping small businesses. In reality, these rollbacks would shift
risk and shift costs from big corporate interests onto the shoulders of small businesses like ours.
Small businesses and the general public should have access to complete information about the
funding behind these efforts.
We do have some information about political spending by health insurance interests nationally,
based on our analysis of data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics. We know, for example,
that the insurance industry (including health insurers) and the health services and HMO industry
nationally spent nearly $57 million on federal campaign giving in the 2010 election cycle, and have
spent over $16 million already in the 2012 cycle. We also know these same interests have spent more
than $600 million on lobbying since 2009 ($240 million in 2009, $232 million in 2010, and $169
million so far in 2011).
Furthermore, it was reported late last year that America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the leading
national trade association for the health insurance industry, contributed $86 million to the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce in 2009.
2
Yet, as corporate political spending continues to rise rapidly since the Supreme Court’s Citizens
United decision in January 2010, there remains much we do not know about dues and contributions
paid by major health insurers, including Humana, to trade groups and other third parties. We believe
small businesses and other health insurance customers across the country deserve full disclosure of
this information.
We are aware that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups with fiscal years ending June 30
will be filing their latest federal 990 forms, including dollar amounts received from major donors
(though without the names of the donors), with the IRS on November 15. We urge you to take the
opportunity to fully disclose all of Humana’s dues and contributions to trade associations and other
third parties in advance of this filing deadline.
We look forward to your response by November 15. Please submit any information in electronic form
to the Main Street Alliance at info@mainstreetalliance.org.
Sincerely,
Kelly Conklin, Foley-Waite Associates, Inc, Bloomfield, NJ
ReShonda Young, Alpha Express, Inc, Waterloo, IA
Mary Noel Black, The UPS Store at Citiplace, Baton Rouge, LA
Hollis Berendt, Green Irene, Greeley, CO
Natalie Dinsdale, Ta-Dah! Salon, Ames, IA
Melanie Collins, Melanie’s Home Childcare, Falmouth, ME
Jim Houser, Hawthorne Auto Clinic, Inc, Portland, OR
Maude Varela, Kidutopia, New Orleans, LA
Tim Christiansen, Vino per tutti, Bozeman, MT
Mike Draper, Raygun, Des Moines, IA
Freddy Castiblanco, Terraza 7 Live Music, Queens, NY
Rick Poore, DesignWear, Inc., Lincoln, NE
John Costin, Veneer Services Unlimited, Kennebunk, ME
Chris Petersen, Family farmer, Clear Lake, IA